Zac/Strategy
Champion Spotlight By David 'Phreak' Turley Champion Spotlight: Zac, the Secret Weapon Learn to punish your opponents with an elastic beatdown in this episode of the Champion Spotlight, where we showcase high-speed jungle potential. Zac quickly tears through monster camps using a combination of mechanics and potent area damage. With a little setup, Zac also has some of the longest range potential to date, enabling a variety of particularly devious ganks. Add in a powerful AoE and you've got one boisterous blob that's ready to lead the charge on the Fields of Justice. Find out more about this amorphous combatant with tips, tricks, sample mastery builds, and more in the Zac Champion Spotlight. Recommended Items Tips ;Playing as * The combination of and is an amazing initiation tool, which can easily reposition a teamfight in your favor from the beginning. * Even when building very tanky, Zac has surprising damage output in teamfights. The enemy team will either be forced to focus you (allowing your ADC and APC to wreak havoc) or else take lots of damage from abilities. ** This makes a deceptively tanky initiator. You will likely lose a lot of health during , but you can gain most of it back so long as your resistances are high. As such, effectively has two build paths: full tank and AP bruiser. ;Playing against *If you are very weak in close quarters, avoid engaging in dangerous territory when you cannot account for Zac's engage. * You can crush blobs to prevent from healing in a fight. ** All forms of crowd control are especially effective against , since he is unable to move to collect his healing blobs. * You can use and on the bloblets to prevent Zac from reviving. * Silences, roots, stuns and knock ups will all interrupt the charging of . * Building a or against can be extremely effective, since it significantly reduces his healing. * needs to be very close to you in order to deal the majority of his damage, which makes kiting a very viable strategy. * has a very long cooldown. Popping this before a teamfight or other major engagement can cripple his effectiveness. ** Be sure to keep an eye on when this is available, as it will allow you to more accurately determine whether you can win a 1v1 with him. * Even though they take reduced AoE damage, you can still easily destroy all of bloblets by using a with a lot of AoE damage. ** It may be helpful to wait to use AoE abilities against until the blob chunks have come close enough together that all can be targeted at once. ;Playing with * Zac can gank from a very far distance with , but can only succeed if the lane is set within range. * Since count as minions, allies can to them to give Zac a brief period of invulnerability while reviving. Playstyle Zac is a tank that excels in disrupting enemy positioning through direct interceptions, whiel being equipped with excellent sustain and a revival mechanic that allows him to extend more than most engagements. * Although all of abilities cost a percentage of his current health, the cost is always compensated by picking up the blobs from . Since there is a net healing effect from consistent retrieval, Zac can spam his abilities without much repercussion. Ability Usage ; Innate * can survive many situations that other champions could not, but only when the result plays out evenly. If you aren't confident in the success of the fight, might as well not bother. ** This also includes tower diving. At maximum range of the turret, at least two of blobs will land out of range, allowing him to survive and come back with over a quarter of his maximum health. ; Q * Casting this skill does not interrupt , making it easy to use as an escape skill. ; W * Spamming is a massive source of AoE damage in teamfights since it has a low cooldown and the percent damage is effective against champions. * Note that the damage deals more if the target has more health, but is limited on non-champions. * You can use during , take advantage of this to maximize damage output. ; E * can gank from a very far distance, avoiding warded areas almost entirely. * When initiating using , be sure to jump towards the back of the enemy team in an attempt to hit and focus the AD/AP carry. ; * Using on the entire enemy team will result in the dropping of four blobs from , which you can pick up for a whopping amount of free health (even more with ) Runes * Items As a tanky initiator, should purchase items that offer survivability stats such as , , and . To play into his sustainability, he benefits from stats like and items with effects that can assist in weakening the enemy. and can also be considered if ahead or if his team needs more damage as Zac's AP ratios and base damage are quite high. * is a strong item on for a tank build, since it provides health, armor, and useful active and passive effects. * adds increased sustain, health, cooldown reduction, magic resistance, and no mana-related stats, making it perfect for . * For boots, your decision should be between , , or . However, should only be used if you need to be getting back to lane very quickly, or if you're jungling and need more mobility. * should be taken to provide tons of health as well as very strong health regeneration effect. It is especially effective when combined with . It also gives CDR which is a bit hard to come by as most tank items that give the stat also give mana which is useless on . * can be useful because of percent health boost and area damage. ** is amazing, since it gives AoE damage, health, and armor, which all tanks need in order to be effective. *** Be careful when using and together, as the passives do not stack. * is really effective on all tanks, since it gives health and magic resist, as well as an active that allows you to shield your entire team, making your strong initiation skills even stronger. * A is a good item to rush on . Since the item synergizes well with he is granted a 'second life', which makes incredibly difficult to kill and adds extra turret diving capacity. ** revive passive takes higher priority over , which makes a worthwhile item. * is a core item for a bruiser build. The slow, health, and AP all work perfectly with damaging style, plus this item functions well in combination with or . ** works well even for a tank build because it provides a lot of health and gives utility and bonus damage. However, it should be noted that the passive only really works with his as all his other abilities already have CC. * is a good defensive item, offering health, MR, CDR and a passive that reduces enemy MR. The passive is especially effective as abilities have high base damage and have ranges that work with the aura. * For boots, you should use , , or . The decision is based on whether you want survivability, cooldown reduction, or magic penetration. * is not recommended, but can be used if more damage is necessary. ** Consider substituting it with a for more survivability. * is a viable purchase because of the survivability it provides as well as the AP and CDR, not to mention the stasis active. * offers ability power and movement speed, making it a very efficient source of damage and mobility for despite wasting the mana restoration. * is basically a must on him, since he is so heavily based on health and that penetration will make his percent damage on even more potent. This is a particularly effective pick in combination with . ** Since penetration works so well in combination with , is also a viable pick. * Try not to waste gold on items with mana or mana regeneration components, as these are wasted on . * Any slots not taken up by AP items should be slotted to increasing survivability, since needs to be so close to enemies to effectively deal damage. * is highly effective on him, and it is recommended that you pick it up regardless of build path, unless there are no champions on the enemy team that do significant magic damage. It is extremely strong because passive gives more effective healing due to the healing from being partially negated by the health cost of his abilities. E.g. you're at 50% HP, you cast an ability which puts you to 48%, and then you pick up a blob which heals to up to % (rather than 52% without the which is an effective healing increase of 40%). Counterpicks * Champions like , , , and can throw away before he uses , by using their own ultimate abilities. ** Alternatively, champions with knock up CC available like or can keep from moving around a teamfight if used after activated . This can significantly reduce the effectiveness of the ability. References Category:Champion strategies Category:Zac